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Analyses of the cognitive activity displayed by students on existing innovative assessments in science were conducted. The project has worked with pilot alternative assessment programs in Connecticut and California to document the match or mismatch between the skills and processes that the assessment is designed to tap and those actually elicited. Exploratory investigation, conceptual integration, and component identification tasks were selected, each varying with respect to grade level, prior knowledge, stage of development, and purpose. Detailed verbal protocols of students in each of the assessment situations in conjunction with observations of student performance, evaluation of student test booklets, and an examination of the scoring criteria provide an empirical basis for linking performance scores with the level and kind of reasoning and understanding. Analysis of these sources of data was guided by a framework of proficient performance that grew from the cognitive psychology literature on the nature of expertise. Focus was placed on the extent to which tasks allowed students the opportunity to engage in higher-order thinking skills (i.e., plan, reason, explain, infer, monitor, or strategically problem solve) and the extent to which scoring systems reflected differential performance of students with respect to the nature of the cognitive activity in which they engaged. Five tables and 19 figures are included. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/SLD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert